Book Reviews

Chicago-Kent Law Review Volume 18 Issue 1 Article 5 December 1939 Book Reviews Webster H. Burke William F. Zacharias Ernest E. Tupes Donald Campbell Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Webster H. Burke, William F. Zacharias, Ernest E. Tupes & Donald Campbell, Book Reviews, 18 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 121 (1939). Available at: https://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cklawreview/vol18/iss1/5 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago-Kent Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarly Commons @ IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. BOOK REVIEWS THE BENCH AND BAR Op OTHER LANDS. William L. Burdick. Brooklyn, New York. Metropolitan Law Book Company, Inc., 1939. Pp. xii, 652. Although travel bureaus have in recent years attempted through planned itineraries and set cruises to standarize foreign travel, it is doubtful if even those embarking on the same world cruise see the same world. This is because they do not see with the same eyes. The business man sees a business world. The professional man has an entirely different outlook. The lawyer, however, will wish that the program permitted more opportunity to visit courts of law and to attend their hearings, and to visit law libraries and law schools in order to become acquainted with lawyers and judges and watch them function. Dean William L. Burdick not only has made frequent trips abroad but has recently spent more than a year in foreign travel, devoting all of his time to visiting courts and law schools, meeting members of the bar from England to Japan.' The result is a book which tells the American lawyer what he would wish to see were he to embark upon a world cruise, visiting the countries whose legal systems are treated. It might perhaps be de- scribed as a conducted tour for law-minded tourists. Our first stopping place is quite naturally England, the foreign land whose legal system holds our greatest interest. In fact, 223 pages, or 34% of the book, is devoted to this portion of the subject. We are reminded of the achievements of our legal ancestors in the section which tells the history and describes the appearance of Westmin- ister Hall,2 and then follow our conductor to the Royal courts of justice, where we see our legal cousins at work in the law courts.3 Our footsteps then turn by way of Fleet Street to Ludgate Hill and to Old Bailey Street, where our conductor tells us, "Old Bailey Street is so named because here was located 'The old bailey,' that is, the bailey or open area, which centuries ago was just inside the wall which enclosed in this quarter the medieval city. Newgate Street received its name from the fact that here, at the northern end of Old Bailey Street stood the 'New Gate,' one of the five principal gates of Old London." "Old Bailey Street is of great interest to all students of the history of our criminal law as it is also to many thousands of readers who are moved by the many tragic tales of its past. Here for over six hundred years, or from the time of Edward III, the London criminal courts have been held and their stern ideas of justice dispensed. Today, there stands in this place an imposing building, the Central Criminal Court, completed and formally opened in October, 1907. -4 We next enter the criminal courts, where we see the judge entering his courtroom carrying in his hand "a little bouquet of gay flowers surrounded with a frill of white lace paper," 5 and this is because medical science in the middle of the eighteenth century, when this custom origin- ated, taught that the odor of flowers was a disinfectant and conferred an immunity in the matter of contracting contagious disease. It is obvious I p. V. 2 P. 5. 3 P. 43. 4 P. 114. 5 P. 118. CHICAGO-KENT LAW REVIEW that we are in a land of custom and tradition. Our guide here tells us of a former trip when he visited Old Bailey in 1887, twenty years before New- gate Prison was removed to make way for the present modern building, when he then saw the small cells and that narrow open space about sev- enty feet long surrounded by cell-wards called "the Press Yard." "Here in olden days those who 'stood mute' when called upon to plead at their arraignment were pressed with heavy boards and weights 'peine forte et dure' until by this torture they were compelled to plead or else be crush- ed to death. As late as 1770 this barbarous practice was followed. Since conviction of felony resulted in the forfeiture of estates, and since one could not be put on trial until he pleaded, occasionally, an indicted pris- oner submitted to this death in order to preserve his property for his heirs."8 We are then shown indictments in use at the present time, which consist of only three necessary parts; a proper commencement, a statement of the specific offense charged, and such particulars as are necessary to give reasonable information of the nature of the charge. We find that the caption, while ordinarily present, is a fixed form and is no part of the indictment. The form of such indictment is as follows :7 (Caption) (As already explained) The King v. John Doe Central Criminal Court. (Or other court) Indictment John Doe is charged with the following offense: Statement of Offense Murder Particularsof the Offense John Doe on the first day of January, 1937, in the county of Middlesex, murdered Richard Roe. Next we visit the courtrooms and observe criminal trials in progress, and we are astonished to see the defendant in the dock where he has no opportunity to communicate with the barrister who is representing him, ex- cept through attracting the solicitor's attention, who may, if he deems the matter important enough, step to the barrister's side and whisper in his ear or perhaps carry a written message to him.8 We are astonished at the rapidity with which jurors are chosen, 9 and we find that the trial on behalf of the State is conducted not by a professional prosecuting attorney but by a barrister in general practice employed for this trial only, who may as 6ften be employed by the defense as by the prosecution. 10 It is with reluctance that we turn from descriptions of criminal court 6 P. 120. 7 P. 140. 8 P. 143. 9 p. 145. 10 Pp. 150-2. BOOK REVIEWS trials which are so realistic that we almost feel that we are breathing the air of the courtroom itself.11 We make a short visit to the inferior courts and find that in one court at least, the County Court, it is not necessary that the litigant's solicitor retain a barrister in the usual manner; inas- much as solicitors themselves have the "right of audience," most of those 12 appearing before the court are in fact solicitors. The proceedings before the House of Lords which we are privileged to witness, and those before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, are impressive not only because of the breadth of the appellate jurisdic- tions exercised but because of the dignified informality of the proceedings.13 Our visit to the Inns of Court is fortunately timed in June, 1933, and we are privileged to attend with Dean Burdick, the 718th anniversary of the signing of Magna Charta at Temple Church.1 4 Our guide's long experience as a legal educator lends authority to the explanation which he gives us of the origin, history, and operation of the inns, the four great bar associations to which the English barristers be- long, and his explanation as to the education of both the intending barrister and solicitor. He does us one final service in England by taking us to the public record office and letting us have a look at the original of Dooms Day Book and Magna Charta itself.15 At this point we cross the English Channel and soon find ourselves in the City of Paris at the "Palais de Justice," constructed on that island in the Seine which Caesar, in his Gallic Wars, tells us is the home of the Par- isii and which thereafter was the capitol of France under Romans, Franks, and their successors. 16 Roman governors here built the palace, portions of which are doubtless incorporated in the present building where so much of the history of France and the development of its law has taken place, and where the principal courts of the Republic are still held.'Y We know that France is a civil law country, but this knowledge has not prepared us for their manner of choosing judges and lawyers from different professions and the organization and procedure of French courts. We find law schools far exceeding in numbers of students in at- tendance those to which we are accustomed, but most of these students are not preparing seriously for any legal vocation. Separate courses lead to the magistracy, including the positions of prosecuting attorney, judge, etc., and to the practice of law. There is ordinarily no possibility of a lawyer ever being elevated to the judiciary. 8 We also find the lawyers divided into two classes, avocates (barristers) and avoues (solicitors).

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